Macbeth : key quotes act 1

Fair is foul, and foul is fair - the witches (act 1, scene 1)

• things are not as they should be

• Introduces us to the theme of order vs chaos , suggesting events about to unfold are not as they should be

• Links to idea that the King is viewed as God in Jacobean society so killing them would distrust the natural order of the world

• Opening scene features only them , first characters audience sees

• However also outsiders to society and are isolated

“When the battles lost and one” scene 1

• witches control battle outcomes

• Battle for macbeths sole

‘In thunder, lightning, or in rain’ - the witches (act 1, scene 1)

• introduced the witched and uses pathetic fallacy to set a scene of chaos

• Also link to Jacobean views that witches can control the weather

‘Brave Macbeth ‘ Captain (act1 scene 2)

‘Noble Macbeth ‘ Duncan

• macbeth’s initial description before we meet his character

• Gives him a good impression

‘Valiant cousin’ Duncan (act1 scene 2)

• suggest closeness and trust with word cousin

‘Bellonas bridegroom’

• bellona is Greek goddess of war, implies he is married to her and so married to war

• Foreshadows his violence

• Irony as in begin his violence is rewarded later on he is seen as a tyrant because of it

‘Carved out his passage’ - captain act 1 scene 2

• he’s determined to get what he wants

• Isn’t afraid of violence and will do anything to get there

‘Memorise another Golgotha’ - captain act 1 scene 2

• Golgotha - place outside Jerusalem where people were cruisified including Jesus

• Creates distant link to Jesus, Macbeth and Jesus are opposites

• Also suggest the amount of their violence

‘Sieve I’ll thither sail’ - witch 1 scene 3

• plays into Jacobean stereotypes about witches

• Plays on their fears and exploits them to create evil characters

‘Hail to thee , Thane of Cawdor’

‘Macbeth that shall be king hereafter’

• dramatic irony, the audience know he is thane of Cawdor he doesn’t yet

• Light his ambition

• Begins the chaos and breaks the natural order

• Witches seem to have power as they are catalyst for all the chaos however they still need Macbeth to act on it

• The witches trochaic tetrametre emphasises their otherness as they don’t align with the good characters

‘So foul and fair a day I have not scene’ - Macbeth S3

• language mirrors that of the witches

• Aligns him with the supernatural

• Could suggest that he has already had these muderous thoughts as he thinks like them/ they only pushed him so far

• Macbeth saw witches influence on battle?

• Macbeth is already under the witches influence or susceptible to their corruption

• Only time we meet Macbeth before he meets the witches and so is ‘uncorrupted’, yet he still is referencing the witches language they played less of a role?

‘If you can look into the seeds of time…speak then to me’ Banquo S3

• asks for his own predictions

• Witches looking into the future, inhuman abilities, links to James I beliefs

• Links to idea of seed of ambition being planted

‘Stay you imperfect speakers’ Macbeth S3

• they are speaking in riddles but he is also calling them imperfect suggesting maybe that they are inhuman and imperfect

• imperative ‘Stay’ shows Macbeth sees himself to be above the , perhaps because they are witches or because they are women

• ‘Imperfect speakers’ he doesn’t fully trust them or he has his suspicions of them

• The ‘imperfect speakers’ is where the play diverges from Shakespeare’s source material the holinshead chronicles in which the sister or ‘wryd’ and conveyers of fate rather than evil beings

‘Or have we eaten in the insane root’ Banquo S3

• believe they may have takes magic mushrooms ect

• Irony as implying that they are seeing hallucination but Macbeth later sees hallucination on Banquo

‘What, can the devil speak truth’ Banquo S3

• Adds Humore

• Links to witches as they were believed to have traded their souls with the devil in order to have supernatural powers

(Aside) ‘the greatest is behin’ Macbth S3

• talking to himself

• Dramatic device shows character inner thoughts , soliloquy

• First impression of Macbeths ambition as he sees he has a bright future

‘Instruments of darkness’ Banquo A1S3

• introduces motif of dark vs light

• Links witches and evil with draknes

‘If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir’ Macbeth A1S3

• he’s decided to leave it up to fate at this point

• Still unsure about what to do

‘He was a gentleman on whom I built an Absolute trust’ duncan A1S4

• shows Duncan as a very naive and trusting character

‘There’s no art to find the minds construction In the face ‘ Malcom act1s4

• you cannot see someone’s thoughts through their face

• Ironic as Malcom is very trusting of Macbeth who will kill him

‘Let not the light see my black and deep desires ‘ Macbeth A1S4

• motif of dark vs light

• He’s thinking about murder

• He regognises the darkness within himself, perhaps suggesting it has always been there / witches played smaller

part then we think

• Macbeths dark nature imagery contrasts him against the legitimate and natural kings such as Duncan and Banquo

‘My dearest partner of greatness’ Macbeth’s letter scene 5

• places lady Macbeth as his equal , antithesis of usual Jacobean society where women were significantly inferior to men

• ‘Greatness’ has links to ambition, suggesting they both have this and work together rather than fully blaming Lady Macbeth

‘It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness’ lady Macbeth scene 5

• she doesn’t believe he has the guts to be king and kill Duncan

• ‘Milk’ links to ideas of children as they need it to be nourished and this connotes sense of innocence, which the witches corrupt?

• This idea conflict with Macbeth being a violent warrior

• Either she is just trying to play into his insecurities to convince him to do it or this is how she really sees him

‘Unsex me here’ lady Macbeth scene 5

• aligning herself with the supernatural

• She wants them too take away her femininity

• Links to Jacobean views of women as weak and pleasant

• Believes she will gain power by being genderless

• She has to change + lose her femininity to gain power, only has power over Macbeth

‘Fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battelemnts’ lady Macbeth scene 5

• she knows what to do before even speaking to Macbeth

• Suggests her idea of much as his

• Manipulating social norms, using her position to her advantage

• She has to act like a conventional women in order to have any control

‘Direst cruelty’ lady Macbeth scene 5

• opposite of Jacobean values of women

• She is asking to be made cruel

• Recognises the amount of cruelty that is necessary to kill someone / the king perhaps implying she is more human than we think

‘ come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall’ lady Macbeth scene 5

• ‘gall’ is posion wants her breast milk to posion

• Strips away feminine energy

• Links to milk being innocence she wishes to take that away

‘Look like th’inncoent flower, but be the serpent under’t’ lady Macbeth scene 5

• religious imigary of the snake in garden of Eden

• Telling him to deceive Duncan

‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’ lady Macbeth scene 7

• Prays in his masculinity to convince him to do it

• Presents them as antithesis to usual male and female roles in Jacobean society

• question about whether he is being ‘manly’ as regicide is not bravery but cruelty, could also link to Macbeth on battlefield

‘Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself And fall on th’other’ Macbeth scene 7

• metaphor

• His ambition will either make him succeed or make him fail

• His ambition will bring his downfall

• Only reason for killing Duncan is his ambition

‘We will proceed no further in this business’ Macbeth scene 7

• he doesn’t want to do it at this point

• Collective pronoun he implores his wife to do the same